This evening England have announced their first lineup of this tour to take the field against Blue tomorrow. The lineup is far from full strength with it believed that the England management wish to give as many players a run as possible prior to the first Test. The biggest names omitted from the side are those of batsmen Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood while Durham seamer Graeme Onions will watch from the sidelines before being given his opportunity against CW A. Reserve opener Michael Carberry features in the middle order, with it being thought best to leave the top three as they are.

England were welcomed to the shored of Cricketweb land over the weekend and they wasted no time getting into the action, the tour started with a three day match against Blue who had the day off in the Development League. Blue are the youngest team in the competition so they were in a good position to learn plenty from this match while it was a good hit out for England who will enjoy the clash against a confident side.

Andrew Strauss won the toss for the visitors and he no doubt planned for a long stay at the crease both personally and for the team, however he got a good ball from first class debutaunt Regan Hutchinson on 8 and he was on his way, Alastair Cook and Johnathan Bell then joined forces to frustrate the Blue's bowlers on their way to 185 run stand, Cook was out 15 shy of his ton when he played on to part timer Dinu De Silva, Trott went on to make a confidence boosting 109 before being run out by Brenton Robb with a direct hit from square leg. Robb later picked up a wicket of his own when he got through the tight defences of Ian Bell, a solid half century by Bell should be enough to see him in the eleven for next week's first test. Back up opener Michael Carberry may have found a home in the middle order, he looked the most fluent of all the English batsman and his 91 will see him come into contention for a spot in the test side while 71 from wicketkeeper Matt Prior will also be guaranteed a position. Adil Rashid came in late and belted a quick 40 not out before Strauss called the team in with the score 505/6.

With just four sessions to go in the match it was all about batting practice for Blue, Richard Langley Junior has been the teams in form batsman but it didn't happen for him today as he was out to Ryan Sidebottom for 8, it was up to fringe batsman Morgan Burridge and Stephen Young to build the solid foundation and their 122 run partnership for the second wicket was exactly what was needed, Young's dismissal for 68 sparked a major collapse though, Loganathan was out for 0 and De Silva for 9 and not even a 16 ball 30 from captain Rob Bowen was enough to stop Blue's demise, Crampton and Robb were also out for Ducks and then the collapse was complete when Burridge himself went for 91, only a quickfire 30 from Regan Hutchinson gave the scoreboard any respectability but even then the damage was done. Graeme Swann had torn through the Blue's line up taking a brilliant 7/69 from 24 overs giving his side a real shot at claiming the match, Blue were all out for 283 and Andrew Strauss asked them to bat again.

Stephen Young was promoted to open with Richard Langley Junior in the second innings and the pair looked the goods during their 63 run partnership, Young was the first to go for 40 and this sparked yet another middle order collapse for Blues, Loganathan made 12 while De Silva and Burridge went for single figure scores Rob Bowen came in and for 38 balls he showed what sparkling form he is in, his 66 included 10 boundaries but it was still well short of what was required. Langley Junior battled hard and fell for 73 soon after he didn't get much help from the lower order except for Hutchinson who again looked solid in making 21 batting at 10, Blue were all out for 272, Ryan Sidebottom was in exception form taking 4/14 from 12 overs.

With 18 overs left in the match England required a comfortable 51 runs to win, they got them with the loss of only Alastair Cook in just over 11 overs, Strauss looked in better form than the first innings in making 28 not out. A 9 wicket win for England to start their tour and they look forward to what will hopefully be a tough fixture against CW 'A' on Thursday.

Great to see Broad getting some stick. Good effort by the bowlers, sticking to their task against a good batting lineup.

Sreesanth said, "Next ball he was beaten and I said, 'is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this impostor, moving around nervously? I should have kept my mouth shut for the next ball - mind you, it was a length ball - Lara just pulled it over the church beyond the boundary! He is a true legend."

Nice to see Young in the runs in both innings and Burridge has shown he is a very capable top order batsman. The bowlers toiled hard, it was always going to be difficult for them without the experienced Demeza, Fuller and Camps supporting them.

Selectors have today finalised the Cricketweb 'A' Team to take on England on Thursday, with plenty of up and coming players putting the heat on the more experienced members of the team in the Dev League season thus far we see a number of new faces stepping up to this level. With injuries and form issues with several players in the CWXI side this game shapes up as an important one with anything up to four spots available for next week's first test against England.